Home > categories > Construction & Real Estate > Cement > Cement and its early uses and terms?
Question:

Cement and its early uses and terms?

My book is set in a medieval ish setting, and I need to know whether cement is an acceptable flooring for a cellar, or if stone should be used? Apparently cement has been used since the Ancient Egyptians, but I don't know if that's a good term for it. Is there an early term I could use? Or should i just use stone?

Answer:

The word cement traces to the Romans, who used the term 'opus caementicium' to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. Cement comes from Latin caementum 'chips of stone'; cement is an ingredient of concrete. With this background information, and sicce your book has a medieval-ish setting, I would suggest using the term caementum when you describe the cellar flooring.
Cement used in construction is characterized as hydraulic or non-hydraulic.It is uncertain where it was first discovered that a combination of hydrated non-hydraulic lime and a pozzolan produces a hydraulic mixture (see also: Pozzolanic reaction), but concrete made from such mixtures was first used on a large scale by Roman engineers.They used both natural pozzolans (trass or pumice) and artificial pozzolans (ground brick or pottery) in these concretes.

Share to: